Black Widow review

 

The time has come. It's taken over 10 years and a global pandemic but Black Widow the first standalone movie for the Avenger has arrived. But can it live up to the hype?? Black Widow is set in the MCU right after Captain America : Civil War as we see Natasha Romanoff on the run from the government. But first we get plenty of expose and backstory on a young Natasha and her sister Yelena. Beginning in 1995 Ohio we're shown Natasha and her sister living a normal all American style life. However when their father returns home one night they're forced to flee their home and Ohio. A chase ensues but the family manage to escape as they soon arrive in Cuba. It's from here where Natasha and Yelena's journey and transformation really begins. With their dad Alexi working undercover they're basically tossed into a cell and forced to train relentlessly until they are declared a Black Widow as part of a process invented and controlled by a man named Drekov and later in Taskmaster who are as one note villains as you can get but more on that in a bit. 

With the events of Civil War not long in the past Natasha has been basically on the run ever since but thanks to her sister's efforts and a serum that can disrupt the mind altering control that Drekov has over his Black Widow subjects the two sisters reunite and team up to get to the Red Room which is the base of operations and ultimately stop Drekov and save all the girls under his control. Scarlet Johansson is as solid as she has ever been here as Natasha. She does the action scenes extremely well as you'd expect and overall her performance is fine. Speaking of the action scenes they are high octane and intense ranging from a bike chase in Budapest to a mid air battle at thousands of feet in the air. It's such a shame then that there really is no stakes here given Natasha's fate in the future and what becomes of her. It's all a bit underwhelming. As for the new characters however Florence Pugh is seriously good here as Yelena sister of Natasha. Her Russian accent does slip a bit from time to time but it's nothing really major to complain about. As for David Harbour he too is extremely charismatic and fun here playing Alexi also known as Red Guardian almost like the Russian version of Captain America. He's mainly here to bring the humor and in typical Marvel style some is funny some not so much. What this movie does delve really deep into however is family and the importance of it but also the heartbreak of it. It genuinely surprised me which I was not expecting so that was good. 

Now for the villains as like I mentioned earlier both Drekov who is portrayed by Ray Winstone and Taskmaster are the now almost typical one note Marvel villains. They certainly aren't Loki or Thanos. They aren't even on the level of Red Skull in my opinion. They aren't truly awful but Taskmaster in particular is treated as more of a nonstop relentless robot who hunts down Natasha and her family throughout the movie ending in a pretty anit-climactic battle. By the time the credits roll however you'll sit back and realize that yes Black Widow was actually an enjoyable solo movie for our Avenger. Performance wise it's solid with some being better than others for sure but overall Black Widow isn't exactly the movie the character deserved. I fear it was a bit too late given what MCU fans know happens in the future for Natasha. That being said Black Widow isn't bad by any means just a bit flat.

★★★